Trump just publicly defended Russia minutes after announcing meeting with Putin

The President just acted like the Kremlin’s spokesman just minutes after today’s official announcement from the Russian government of a Trump-Putin “summit” meeting in Helsinki, Finland next month.

Donald Trump continues to spin loudly in media gaggles, hate rallies and on Twitter, and it was the latter channel where he spoke up just minutes before the Kremlin made the announcement he’s been waiting for his whole presidency.

The White House and Kremlin made a joint announcement at 6:30 am of the July 16th one-on-one meeting between Trump and Putin, whose unmistakeable connection is at the heart of Mueller’s criminal investigation of Russia’s attacks on Democrats in the 2016 election campaign.

An hour later, Donald Trump issued the Kremlin’s denial of interference in the elections by Twitter:

Only two large, meaningful pieces of legislation have passed Congress since Donald Trump’s inauguration last January; the tax scam bill and the sanctions bill against Russia in retaliation for their election attacks.

Trump’s own administration took its time, but eventually, in January it issued a list of Russian oligarchs and companies involved in Putin’s efforts to help elect him to the White House.

In early April, Trump’s Treasury Department sanctioned oligarchs involved in Russia’s attacks, like Oleg Deripaska who is close to Putin and jailed ex-Trump Campaign manager Paul Manafort.

Just yesterday, Mueller’s team unsealed the search warrant used to raid Manafort’s Virginia home last summer in search of information about a $10 million payoff from Oleg Deripaska, and evidence about the campaign’s meeting with Russian agents for dirt on Hillary Clinton during the election.

It’s overtly laughable for the President to deny Russia’s involvement in his election campaign.

But Trump’s terrible attacks on America’s federal agencies and the many crocodile tears he has shed over Hillary Clinton’s treatment by the FBI are the most public evidence there is of his consciousness of guilt for illegally conspiring with Russian agents during the 2016 election campaign.

The numbness and banality of the shameful fact that America’s president has been utterly corrupted and tamed by Russia are worthy of real tears by every American in the nearly 66 million people who voted for Hillary Clinton to occupy the Oval Office.

Grant Stern

Editor at Large

is the Executive Editor of Occupy Democrats and published author. His new Meet the Candidates 2020 book series is distributed by Simon and Schuster. He's also a mortgage broker, community activist and radio personality in Miami, Florida., as well as the producer of the Dworkin Report podcast. Grant is also an occasional contributor to Raw Story, Alternet, and the DC Report, an unpaid senior advisor to the Democratic Coalition, and a Director of Sunshine Agenda Inc. a government transparency nonprofit organization. Get all of his stories sent directly to your inbox here: